The Weekly Winston: Far East Edition

Churchill, writing in 1951 about the idea of invading China to win the Korean War:

That would be the greatest folly. It would be like flies invading fly-paper.

When asked in the House of Commons one day where North Korea was procuring its arms, Churchill answered:

Although there are movements ever being made in aerial locomotion, it would be premature to suppose that they came from the moon.

And about China, Churchill in 1962 doubted that Communism would stick:

I am by no means sure that China will remain for generations in the Communist grip. The Chinese said of themselves several thousand years ago: ‘China is a sea that salts all the waters that flow into it.’ There is another Chinese saying about their country which dates only from the fourth century: ‘The tail of China is large and will not be wagged.’ I like that one. The British democracy approves the principle of movable party heads and unwaggable tails.